Upcoming Indian movie ‘Bangistan’ banned in Pakistan

Salman Khan’s Eid release, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, may have set the cash counters ringing across the border, but the Riteish Deshmukh-Pulkit Samrat satire, Bangistan, has been banned in Pakistan.

“Basing their judgment on the trailer alone, they have decided that the film is anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim. If anything, it’s anti-terrorism and since Pakistan is as much a victim of this global menace as any other country, it is in their interest to screen the film. It’s message is that it’s foolish to give up your life for a cause you’ll not live to fight for,” reported the Mumbai Mirror citing Sidhwani who has written to the ministry asking for a review of the decision.

He has applied for visas, for himself, director Karan Anshuman and his actors, Riteish and Pulkit, to visit the country, if only for a day. “I’d like to show the film to the ministry and the censor boards to prove that our intentions are fair,” he says.

Bangistan is about two suicide bombers, Hafeez Bin Ali/ Ishwarchand Sharma (Riteish) and Allah Rakha Khan/ Praveen Chaturvedi (Pulkit), who’ve been brainwashed into an explosive mission but eventually realise the death wish is futile exercise. Ritesh argues that such suicide pacts are common to both countries and the need of the hour is to show brainwashed youngsters that it’s a path to nowhere.

Was the quirky music video with Riteish as Osama bin Laden and Pulkit as Saddam Hussein one of the reasons the Pakistanis turned squeamish, even though Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam opens on the same day, July 31, there? He retorts, “The promotional video doesn’t reflect the content. Our story is set in a fictitious country called Bangistan.”